Last Saturday afternoon, I got the chance to sit down and have a little talk with Grasshopper Interactive boss (and super-nice guy) Goichi Suda. How's the family, how's the weather, when's No More Heroes coming out, that kind of thing. Very cordial.

His address on day one of the conference was all about what makes him a punk designer, so I ask him why he thinks so few other developers adopt a similar strategy. "When you're making games, it's very important to have the funds to make the game", he says. "So in order to get approval from your publisher, you have to be able to convince them that your game will be successful, which means you need to make your game more 'safe'".

"So making games in a 'punk style' has a lot more risk", he continues. "It is a lot more difficult and poses a lot of challenges to designers, so maybe that's why not many other developers do it". In other words, just like punk, most people aren't fans of the end product.

Yet, just like punk, while the mass-market might shun him, he's developed a cult following, including here in the west. I ask him why he thinks this is. "I've been watching western movies and listening to western music since I was little, so I think I'm really used to western culture", he says.

"Before I got into making games I was always looking for something to do, that I believed in, that I could make for the western market", Suda continues. "That's where a lot of my original ideas are coming from, and once I was fortunate enough to be able to make Killer7, from the beginning I wanted to release the game overseas and give westerners something I felt they were looking for".

"I also wanted to give them something that made them feel "oh, this is great", or "oh, this is very different from other western games", he says. "I think maybe that's why some westerners like my ideas and my games".

Another reason, I point out, is because your last two games were on Nintendo systems, as is your next one. Why the love? "The Wii, and also the DS, are both quite 'different' devices at their core", he says. "So if a game developer has a very strict, safe idea of how to make a game, that makes it difficult for him, because what Nintendo are doing is totally new and fresh".

"So I first have to destroy the way I'm thinking about how to make a game, then rebuild the game as I can see it working on the system", he continues. "That's what I find really interesting about making a game for the Wii".

I point out that, for all their artistic vision, Killer7 and Contact had their fair share of flaws. So do you ever look back on your games with a critical eye? "I don't really think about looking back on my past games", he says. "Oh, except the PS2 version of Killer7. Some 'other company' ported the game to PS2, and I like working on all my games myself, so that's the only thing I wish I could change".

But surely you learn a lesson or two from how a game is received? I mean, Killer7 had a lot of fans, but most people either didn't understand, or straight-up hated the game. "Well, it's not just Killer7, people seem to either love or hate most of my games, there's nobody in between!" he says.

"So I kind of expected that reaction. As for learning a lesson, I didn't really 'learn' anything for No More Heroes because it's a different kind of game, but maybe looking at how the western market reacted to Killer7 will help for the game we release after No More Heroes".

Ah, No More Heroes. This writer, at least, is a little bit excited. So when's it coming? During your address, a June-July release date was mentioned. "I'm looking at releasing the game in Japan sometime this year", he says, "and hopefully either at the end of this year or early next year in Europe and the United States". Ah. Translator error, then. Shame.

Reminding him that he's on record as saying No More Heroes will be "as violent, or even more violent than Manhunt 2!", I ask whether the issue of censorship is troubling him. If it's ultra-violent, won't that run the risk of it being banned in places like Germany or Australia?

"Well, Japan has a strict ratings system too, just like Australia and Germany", Suda says. "I'm working on making changes to different versions of the game so that we can release the game everywhere". No word on just what these changes were, sadly, but Germans might want to start thinking about importing anyway.

With the recent turmoil at Capcom over the whole Clover fiasco and the formation of Seeds, I figure I'll ask if we can expect/hope for another collaboration with Shinji Mikami. "We've been talking about making another game like Killer7, so we're not sure when that's going to be", he says. "But something will happen in the future, we really want to make it happen". Luke Plunkett

Send an email to the author of this post at plunkett@kotaku.com.